As I always say, in the world of technology, there is not "best". It all depends on what best fits your needs and workflow.

Since version 11, I think Premiere Elements has really matured as a program! It's easy to start up a project and the program works efficiently even with AVCHD footage. It's also loaded with great special effects. It's got a couple of bugs in it -- mostly in the Mac version. But overall, it's terrific little program for editing consumer video.

PowerDirector 12, on the other hand, amazes me with its depth! It's easy to get up and running with the program, yet it includes high-end features like multi-camera editing, optional subtitles on DVDs, very cool particle effects and BluRays and a very effective tool for turning standard 2D video into very effective 3D. Yet it, too, has its eccentricities. Deleting a clip from your timeline and rippling the gap shut is much more complicated than it should be, for instance. And it includes no way to easily interface with an AVCHD camcorder and download video from it.

PowerDirector also includes a link to the directorZone, a massive library of nearly half a millions Cyberlink and user created effects and templates. Which is pretty amazing, even if it's not an easy library to search through.

That said, the rest is personal preference. They're both excellent programs and amazing values -- light years ahead of where high-def video editing was even 5 years ago.

So give them both a test drive with your video on your computer. They both offer free 30-day trials.

Or check out our Basic Training tutorials for each and see which looks like a more suitable workflow for you.

Thanks for alerting me to your site. I definitely need all the help I can get.

One word of caution about PowerDirector. I have used it for many years and really like the product. However, it is dead on my computer now. I bought a new PC which has Win 8.1 and I loaded PD12. The first error I got before it locked up was that there was a missing Kernel. I contacted the online support and they have been sending me updated downloads, it still has not solved the problem. There is something about PD12 that is just not compatible with Win8.1 and the updated support products for that system, like QuickTime. They said that it might have something to do with a new Codec. This has been going on for almost 2 weeks now, and my PD12 still is not working. The Kernel error message said "Cyberlink CLQKernalClient32 has stopped working". Now for some reason the message no longer appears, but the system locks up as soon as I try to capture video. I have a project which is over a week late and I am not happy. Their support is terrible. The online trouble ticket system is very difficult to use. If you want to update or add something to your reply, it will not let you do it. If you send your message on another ticket, they get upset and tell you not to do that. When you are problem solving, a dialogue is important. Needless to say, I am not a happy camper.

On a positive note, PD is my favorite video capture and editing software. It is so much more user friendly and easier to use than Adobe Premiere Elements. Not being a skilled IT and video editing person, PD has been my 1st choice. It is very straight forward in the edit functions. Sadly, PE11 assumes the user has advanced editing skills and knowledge which I don't have. However, my PE11 works and the PD12 doesn't.

Now I'm off to use your tutorials to hopefully learn PE11. Keeping my fingers crossed. Something a simple as deleting the sound tracks on PE is a total mystery. It shouldn't be that way.

1) Premiere Elements seems more polished, and the quality of video in the clip/movie window is more finished-looking than the PowerDirector equivalent.

2) The Storyboard feature in PowerDirector is wonderfully convenient, and it's almost enough to make me go with PD.

3) BUT....Whenever I choose "trim" in PowerDirector, there's a lag of several seconds before a window opens with the trim controls. (This is on an i7 PC with plenty of RAM.) Given the reputed speed of PD's rendering engine, I'm surprised that the program itself could be so slow.

4) Premiere Elements seems to have a lot more available training and reference resources than PowerDirector does. That's a tiebreaker, if not a definitive reason for choosing Premiere Elements.

I suspect that, at the end of my 30-day trial period, I'll settle on Premiere Elements, but we'll see!